


In Your Dreams, Whatever They Be

by camichats



Series: Imagine James and Sirius Prompts [187]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Marauders, Soulmates, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27761815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: You can see bits of your soulmate and what they like in your dreams. It would be a lot easier for James to know for sure that his soulmate was Sirius if his dreams were about something other than food.
Relationships: Sirius Black/James Potter
Series: Imagine James and Sirius Prompts [187]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/752925
Comments: 12
Kudos: 110





	In Your Dreams, Whatever They Be

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt: “I love the way you write James and Sirius so much. I was wondering if you could write a soulmate au where you see bits and pieces of your soulmate in your dreams (fav color, hear their laugh, see things they like, etc) and James is pretty sure Sirius is his soulmate but isn’t completely sure. If not, don’t worry about it but if you can, thank you!💕💕”

Soulmate dreams were different from regular dreams. Regular dreams were weird, often nonsensical, and evaporated the next day after being awake for long enough. Soulmate dreams lingered. There was still a dreamlike quality to soulmate visions that couldn't be shaken, but they were more memorable than normal dreams. Soulmate dreams were weird for a lot of reasons, but mostly it was because they were so random. You never knew what you were going to get from one or why. Sometimes it was stuff they saw or were thinking about, and other times it was them. 

For example, James knew that his soulmate had hair that went down at least to their chin, probably a little bit longer. He knew that because that day at Hogwarts, they'd been playing with their hair, and that night, he dreamed about it. He'd been aware of the professor at the front of the classroom _during_ the dream, but after he woke, the only detail that remained was the hair. 

Obviously that was just an example of a single dream. The dreams didn't come every night, but James had been dreaming of his soulmate for his entire life. He had a few details of his soulmate and how he could identify them, but most of it was stuff that his soulmate liked. 

That's why James _thought_ that his soulmate was Sirius. Sirius had the long hair, he had a laugh that warmed James to his core, and he had deep grey eyes that James had caught glimmers of from time looking in a mirror. 

Soulmate dreams never showed the full face or let your hear someone saying their name. Hearing a laugh was pretty good, as far as identifying features went. If James could actually remember how it sounded instead of the way it made him feel, he'd know for sure if it was Sirius. 

Another reason that he wasn't one hundred percent about it being Sirius was that most of his soulmate dreams were about food. Sodding _food_. Sirius was his best mate and all, and he knew him better than anyone else in his entire life, but Sirius's appetite seemed to change based on the planet's position and how late he'd stayed up the night before. James couldn't make heads or tails of it. Sometimes, Sirius said that he couldn't stand scrambled eggs and how dare he have to smell them on an otherwise pleasant morning. Two days later, he was wolfing them down like there was no other food in existence. And he did that with _everything_. Shepherd's pies, treacle tarts, beans and toast, soup... everything. Absolutely everything. 

So it didn't really mean anything that one night James dreamed of mashed potatoes, and the next week, he dreamed of candied plums. He tried to connect it to Sirius's eating habits, but it was no use. Half the shite James's soulmate dreamed about wasn't food that Hogwarts had, anyways. 

"Hey, Sirius?" James asked. They were in the library, doing homework. History of Magic would be a lot easier to pass if the professor actually looked at them every once in a while, but it meant that when they had an essay they needed to write, they had to actually go to the library if they wanted good marks. 

"I'm not done with this yet," Sirius said, assuming that James was going to ask to see the book he was currently reading. 

"Not that. Just- do you know who your soulmate is?" 

Surprised, Sirius glanced up at him. "Why are you asking?" 

"Do you know?" 

"What does it matter?" 

"Why are you being so weirdly closed off about it?" 

"I'm not being weirdly closed off; I'm being normal closed off, and it's because I don't think you'll like the answer you get." 

"So you _do_ know who your soulmate is," James said. There was no other reason why Sirius couldn't tell him. 'No' was an easy answer. Lots of people didn't have enough details to figure out who their soulmate was-- and even if they did have plenty of details, there was nothing they could do if they hadn't met them. 

Sirius scowled at him. 

"Who is it?" 

"Are we really doing this?" Sirius asked. "Right here in the library? You've never asked about it before but you're going to try and squeeze if out of me while we're in public?" 

"The library doesn't count as public; there's no one else in sight." 

"Maybe it's not public, but it's definitely not _private_. Do we really want to have this blow up right here? It'll be fun-- everyone can hear it and call it a domestic." 

"We're not going to have a domestic," James said, rolling his eyes. "Just tell me who your soulmate is." 

"Why the hell would I do that?" 

James glared at him. "Because I won't shut it and let you finish your essay otherwise." 

"You won't let me finish it if I _do_ tell you." 

"I will." 

"Liar," Sirius said. "You always think you'll be calm, but you never sodding are." 

"When have I ever _tried_ to claim that I'll be calm and not followed through?" 

"Normally, you're calm because you don't give a shite. You'll care about this, which means you won't be calm about it." 

"You're overthinking this," James said. "Unless your soulmate is buggering Snape or- it's not Snape is it?" 

"Ew, no." 

James relaxed again. "Then we're fine." 

"Why do you even care? You haven't cared in the past six years." 

"Not bothering you about it isn't the same as not caring." 

"So why do you care?" 

James didn't feel like admitting to something so revealing, especially when Sirius had already admitted that he knew who his soulmate was, so he shrugged. 

"A shrug isn't gonna cut it, Prongs." 

He hesitated. "How about this: I'll tell you why I want to know _after_ you tell me who it is." 

Sirius didn't accept right away, which was enough to make him nervous. Then he sighed. "Fine, but you don't get to freak out. We're not going to be able to finish this essay on time if you freak out." 

"We've worked under tighter time constraints." 

Sirius stared at him flatly. 

"Fine, fine, I promise. No freaking out." If Sirius's soulmate was James, then he could just be happy-- no freaking out required. If it wasn't James, then he'd be too sad to move. He was going to sit here and mope until curfew, if that was the case. "So?" he prodded, raising an eyebrow expectantly. 

"You shouldn't do that; it makes you look like your glasses are about to fall off." 

With a huff, James let his face return to normal. "You're stalling." 

"It's you." 

"No, it's not. Do I look like I'm the one stalling?" 

Sirius threw a quill at him. "You're my soulmate, you absolute arse." 

"Oh." James blinked, then threw the quill back at him. "You could've told me that the first time I asked, tosser." Shaking his head at Sirius's particular brand of ridiculous, he turned back to his essay. 

"That's it?" Sirius asked, so incredulous that James looked up at him again. 

"Erm. Yes? I mean, obviously there's stuff I want to talk about, but I promised I'd let you finish your essay if you told me." 

"Actually, I think what you promised was that you wouldn't freak out." 

"I can do both." 

Sirius stared at him for a long moment. "Did you already know that I was your soulmate?" 

"I had my suspicions." 

"How the hell did you only have suspicions? I knew it was you after we were dormmates for a _week_." 

"Okay," James said, pointing a finger at him, "you don't get to judge me. I was only ever dreaming about food! You're so buggering weird; couldn't you have just picked two foods you liked and stuck with that? I dream about red curry, and then the next day, you refuse to eat it. Talk about mixed signals. I've been guessing at your favourite foods for sodding _years_." 

"It's not my fault that sometimes I'm in the mood for something that stinks," Sirius muttered petulantly. 

"So you're in the mood to eat it, but you refuse to because it smells bad?" James asked. He wasn't judging, but he couldn't really relate. He had a couple foods that he didn't like, but everything else was fair game. Comparatively, Sirius was the most picky eater in the world. Not that James really cared, except for the soulmate thing. "And you couldn't have explained that to me earlier?" 

"I didn't realise your sanity was on the line," Sirius said dryly, but his expression was still that touch of vulnerable that he only got around James. 

"My sanity is always on the line when you don't tell me things," James said, flashing him a grin that helped soothe Sirius's nerves. "Look, it won't take us that long to finish this, so let's get it done with and..." 

"And?" Sirius asked, quirking a smile at him. 

"Well," James said, trying to push down the warmth bubbling in him-- if he let it do its own thing, he'd never be able to focus on finishing this essay. "We can figure that out later." 

The fond look on Sirius's face made it clear that he knew exactly what 'figure that out later' would end up meaning for them. They'd snog for a while, fall asleep, then wake up, snog some more, and _then_ talk about it. That talk would probably go along the lines of 'soulmates? cool', but at least they would've done it. "Alright," Sirius said. He picked his quill back up and looked at the book he'd been reading before James interrupted him. 

It would almost be like nothing had changed, except Sirius now had a faint smile on his face, and James couldn't ignore the happy butterflies in his chest if he tried. Without looking up, Sirius nudged his leg with one of his own feet. James glanced at him, and Sirius's smile widened, eyes still stuck to the page. James chuckled and turned his attention back to the essay, but he kept his leg where it was, pressed up against Sirius's. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is from a prompt driven blog @[imaginejamesandsirius](https://imaginejamesandsirius.tumblr.com) on tumblr. Feel free to drop by!


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